Essay on Garden Party: Katherine Mansfield's Exploration of Social Hierarchy and Expectations

Introduction

The Garden Party is Katherine Mansfield's short story that makes social, political, and cultural expectations very apparent. The short story, which one might think is all about a garden party, evolves into a narration about moral and social dilemmas instead. Additionally, the structure of the story is to depict the initial thoughts of Laura on her social hierarchy situation, her family's desire reaction to assimilate her qualities to fit theirs, as well as Laura's outcomes and stance on the social hierarchy. The depicted desensitizing process of Laura from the social injustices represents a large-scale social injustices problem. The paper, therefore, expounds on how Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party negotiates social, political, and cultural injustice.

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Cultural Injustice

In the story's scope, which occurs in a day, women dominate the house. Mrs. Sheridan and her three daughters were bustling in the entire house, planning the party that was to happen in the garden later that day. Laurie (the son), the delivery man, the workmen, and the male servant occupy limited time and space than women (Mansfield). Mr. Sheridan, who is the man of the house, is never seen in the preparation at all. Therefore, on a superficial level, because women are central and seem to be in charge of the story, they might depict a specific feminist value (Mansfield).

Moreover, the garden party planning is a stereotypical women's arena where they are focusing more on event planning and hospitality. Their discussions of hats, dresses, flowers, and other feminine details are perceived as frivolous by Laura as well as the reader. Even though the traditional women's gender roles do not point to feminism automatically, some values of feminism are portrayed through Laura Sheridan's character (Atkinson 54).

The family of Laura is seen to be wealthy as their yard is made up of a tennis court and several gardens where workers arrive to set up tents for the party. The household also consists of several servants and a cook. During the party preparation, a delivery man utters that a man who lived nearby was killed after being thrown from his horse.

However, Laura thought that it was inappropriate and irrelevant to proceed with the party with a nearby grieving family. Still, everyone ignores her and continues with the party as it was not a big deal to them (Atkinson 54). The depicted disagreement makes Laura know the elitist attitudes of her family; their priorities are superficial and shallow.

The awakening of Laura has to do more with class than the roles of gender. However, according to their culture, when a woman knows and begins to inquire more about social status regarding class, it results in thinking about her societal position as well as her position as a woman. From the story, the principal value of feminist is to recognize the intersectionality of gender, class, and race, or the way the depicted three identity aspects intersect to define the position of a person in the society.

The feminist theory stresses that white people, upper and middle-class males always find injustice when only exploring social structures, and individuals experience different privilege levels depending on their identity intersection in gender, class, and race (Alwes 215).

The Sheridans condescended towards the murdered man as he was from a lower class. However, Laura was from the upper class but had particular expectations and experiences due to her gender. The action is apparent when her father raised the man's death after the party, which seemed clumsy to Mrs. Sheridan. The action, thus, depicts the belief that some topics or stories were not appropriate for women's discussion (Mansfield).

Social Injustice

The rich's social prejudice regarding the poor is seen in Mrs. Sheridan and Jose's attitude, with Laura's contrasting view, which was different from all of them. The suggestion of Laura's reaction to postpone the party showcases how every person thinks of the poor. According to Mrs. Sheridan, poor people should not expect the wealthy to sacrifice themselves and their activities to mourn for their deaths.

She also depicts her "brilliant" idea of sending leftover food after the party to the poor, together with lilies that might impress the poor (Mansfield). The action depicts how little she thinks of the poor and how she despises them.

From the scene, the fact that the concern and sympathy for Mrs. Sheridan are only applicable to wealthy people depicts the attitude and behaviors of many rich people in the society who have no regard for the poor in any aspect (Alwes 215). The story's primary theme seems to be young Laura's coming-of-age. However, many comparison undertones are carried between existence and different life extremities, and of the social prejudices. Therefore, to compare two different concept ends, Mansfield established two contrasting worlds that each present the extreme behavior of its end.

The two different worlds may represent pleasure and suffering, joy and sorrow, life and death, childhood and adulthood, wealth and poverty, or beauty and ugliness. The depicted theme is the most noteworthy feature of the writings of Mansfield, where her life philosophy is inflicted flawlessly (Atkinson 56).

During the text's analysis, analogies for each context is found in the story. In the first half of the story, there is the highlighting of the positive characters where everything involved is perfect, as well as the second half that is woven with the dark, which is essential to the story's theme.

The variance between the world of the Sheridans and that of the poor is depicted in stable visual imagery. The reader captures and follows the mood and images of where the Sheridan lives. Everything is different, including the ideal weather, with cloudless blue skies, suitable for dance, and partying with happiness.

Also, many people appeared in a single night with hundreds of roses to decorate the garden as it was veiled with light gold haze (Mansfield). However, the perfection of the initial picture is contrasted with Laura's village visit, where there are a pale sky, dark and smoky lanes, and cottages, with a light flicker and buildings, painted chocolate brown.

The village was an eyesore, and the patches of their garden had stalks of cabbage, tomato cans, and sick hens (Mansfield). The images' contrast is extreme that it is difficult to believe that both people exist in one world, let alone nearby.

The author tries to convey and depict how, in reality, all life extremities are linked, and all rely on each other. Just as pleasure cannot exist without suffering, the poor without the rich, beauty without ugliness, life without death, and sorrow without joys (Alwes 215).

It is the connection and combination of the depicted that make life what it is, and for one to live peacefully, they must accept everything, even the ones they do not want. The message is the author's ultimate aim, and it is what Laura understands at the end. The action, thus, changes her views from the narrow-minded ignorance at the start (Atkinson 57).

Political Injustice

The Garden Party is as much about the division of class as it is about the awareness of characters of the depicted division (Mansfield). While the story showcases how elite prejudices against the high or working-class people assist in sustaining an unequal society, it also depicts how class lines encounters can change the political and social understanding of people.

In short, meeting different individuals from other classes might assist the individual in developing a class difference consciousness leading to empathy for the people of different classes. However, the short story is specifically optimistic; the author depicts how prejudice of class can also limit the understanding of people even when the most privileged are perfectly intentioned (Mansfield). Their empathy and identification for the less privileged are always not enough to meaningfully affect the conditions of the materials that structure class variances.

Additionally, the author parodies and emphasizes the sharp political and social separation between the poor and the rich by showcasing the absurd prejudice of the Sheridans against working-class individuals as well as their inability to imagine the lower-class individual's view.

After being informed of the death of Mr. Scott, who was a cart driver, Jose (one of the Sheridan daughters) accuses Scott of taking too much alcohol that led to the accident (Alwes 215). Jose suggests that Mr. Scott must be responsible for his death and, thus, their family should not involve concern themselves with the death (Mansfield).

Jose made the statement because her main objective was to have fun and enjoy herself in the party, instead of having the party halted due to the inconvenience of the death of some poor person (Mansfield). Also, Mrs. Sheridan argues the same that the party should continue because poor people often do not expect sacrifices from the wealthy. The action depicts the scenarios of the current world regarding politicians and regular citizens.

During the time of their campaigns, they always lure the poor with empty promises that they will achieve after winning a specific seat. However, after being sworn in, the story and priorities change (Atkinson 58).

The politicians focus more on their activities and families with public funds, have parties with the public funds, buy lands and gardens then build fancy homes with the same public funds.

However, when asked by the voters, who, in most cases, are always poor people regarding the region's social welfare, they prioritize less about their pleas and give them the "leftover," which is always the most minimum part of the funds.

Just as Mrs. Sheridan, the poor should be given leftover food with lilies to show how they are being cared for is the same way politicians treat poor citizens (Alwes 215). Nevertheless, while Laura attempts to identify with the views of the working-class people, the narration portrays her as being unable to overcome her class position blinders.

In section due to the comfortingly informal speech of the workmen, Laura fails to understand them even though she starts making connections with the working-class people.

The action can be seen when one of the workmen told Laura that in case she followed him, she would be going to a place where it will give her a bang slap in the eye. The action suggests that the more privileged people have power as opposed to the less privileged.

They take advantage of their position and maximize its benefits even if it means doing away with their colleagues who might set them up or the poor. The Garden Party, therefore, reflects on today's society as well as the leaders and wealthy people involved and how they treat the poor in times of need (Mansfield).

Conclusion

In the short story, Mansfield establishes a philosophical discussion regarding the existence of some social, political, and cultural beliefs or norms, using almost comedic undertones and simple language. To understand the deep intellectual story's nature, a reader must uncover and delve into the subtext in an inconsequential and simple narration. The life philosophy of the author, which is, for one to fully experience life, they have to accept everything it offers, which has vastly influenced the story at the end.

Also, the author showcases the different social classes of people which make them be respected in society. The wealthy are always prioritized where the poor are expected to bow down to them because of the power they possess as well as their wealth. The action is different for the poor people as they can only be offered leftovers and their deaths having no impact on the society as they will always be blamed for the cause of their death. Thus, through the short story, s...